MP gets own vote as 'love rat'

By Richard Alleyne

12:01AM BST 08 Oct 2005

A married MP who made his researcher pregnant has voted for himself in a newspaper phone poll to identify the Love Rat of the Year.

John Hemming, 46, the Liberal Democrat MP for Birmingham Yardley, who has ambitions to be his party's leader, announced that he had voted for himself in the poll and dismissed his 11 rivals as "various drab people".

In June, Mr Hemming, who has expressed his intention to stay with his wife Christine, with whom he has three children, admitted having a six-year affair with his researcher Emily Cox, now 27, and that she was pregnant.

He said his wife, Christine, was "not best pleased'' when he broke the news but he had no intention of leaving her. Mrs Hemming said that even though she felt "betrayed and hurt'' and that the pregnancy "sends out a disgraceful moral message'', she would stand by her husband. She indicated that the affair was one of many her husband had had, and accused Miss Cox of "trying to force his hand'' by getting pregnant.

Yesterday Mr Hemming, who took over the seat at the last general election, told BBC local radio he did not care whether or not he won the honour, being decided upon by News of the World readers.

"I don't really care to be honest. At the end of the day you have got to laugh at something."

Miss Cox, a Birmingham city councillor, is due to give birth next month.

Whoever wins this month's love rat contest will receive a golden rodent on a wooden plinth. The winner's wronged partner will be awarded a pampering weekend for two at a five-star hotel in London.